Differences in Nominalization between Korean and English and

Differences in Nominalization between Korean and
English and Their Implications for Translation1
LEE Chang-soo
Graduate School of Translation & Interpretation
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
Abstract/Résumé
Ce document examine les différences dans la métaphore grammaticale, en particulier,
nominalization entre coréen et en anglais et leurs implications pour la traduction anglaiscoréen. Après avoir discuté un cadre théorique pour ces discussions, l'article montre
comment nominalization dans le cadre de syndromes (grappes de métaphores
grammaticales qui se produisent dans une seule phrase ou la clause) est relativement
restreint en coréen. Cela est suivi par une petite étude de cas qui montre que des textes
littéraires coréennes traduites en anglais ont tendance à manque d'expressions nominalized,
prenant le rôle d'agent dans les bring process clauses, en comparaison avec textes
authentiques. L'article discute certaines implications éducatives de ces conclusions.
Keywords/Mots-Clés
Translation, systemic
nominalization
functional
linguistics,
Halliday,
grammatical
metaphor,
I. Introduction
The purpose of this paper is to investigate differences in grammatical metaphor,
particularly nominalization (Halliday 1985, 1994:chapter 10), between Korean and
English and discuss their implications for Korean-English translation.
Grammatical metaphor, in simple terms, refers to ‘a substitution of one grammatical
class, or one grammatical structure, by another’, much in the same way a word
substitutes for another in conventional metaphor (Halliday & Martin 1993:79).
According to this definition, when a noun substitutes for a verb or a phrase substitutes
for a clause, we have an instance of grammatical metaphor. The statement A close
inspection of the vase revealed some hairline cracks in the bottom involves grammatical
metaphor of both types. To begin with, what is in essence a verb-process (inspect) is
dressed up as a noun-thing (a … inspection) to act as a participant (the Subject) in the
1
This work was supported by Hankuk University of Foreign Studies Research Fund of 2012.
117
clause. This is a case of one grammatical class substituting for another. At the same time,
what is naturally a clause (When I inspected the vase closely) is packed into a nominal
group (A close inspection of the vase), constituting a case of a phrase substituting for a
clause.
English is said to be highly developed in grammatical metaphor. Halliday and
Matthiessen (1999: 244-245) identify 13 types. Grammatical metaphor has come about
as a result of language evolution, first appearing in the scientific domain and spreading
to other genres in English and other European languages (Halliday & Martin 1993:80).
Particularly, the development of grammatical metaphor in English has gained speed
over the past centuries, enabling “expansion of the discourses of the sciences,
humanities and bureaucracies that accompanied Europe's industrialization and colonial
expansions” (Martin & Rose 2003:104). These observations about the historic
development of grammatical metaphor in English raise the issue of possible crosslinguistic divergences in the scope and typology of grammatical metaphor. Naturally,
such differences can pose interesting challenges to translators.
Korean is a case in point. As will be discussed later, there appear to be some
contextual restrictions on nominalization in Korean compared to English. For instance,
in English, both the congruent clausal form I inspected the vase closely and the
metaphorical nominalized alternative a close inspection of the vase are equally
acceptable. By contrast, Korean has a distinctive preference for the clausal form, with
the nominalized form verging on being unacceptable though grammatically possible. On
the basis of this observation, we may hypothesize that Korean texts translated into
English will be relatively deficient in nominalization when compared to authentic
English texts. The present paper attempts to shed some light on the validity of this
hypothesis by analyzing some natural data in a case study. As a way of setting the stage
for it, we will first review some basic concepts underlying the notion of grammatical
metaphor and discuss possible differences in nominalization between Korean and
English.
118 Differences in Nominalization between Korean and English and Their Implications...